Study: GPU Computing to Enable Safer CT Scans

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A new $2.6 Million study shows that GPUs can enable effective, inexpensive supercomputing to hospitals for safer CT scans.

With this new study, we hope to bring massively parallel computing power—currently available only to national laboratories and major research universities such as Rensselaer—to busy and resource-limited hospitals,” said Xie George Xu, professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering (MANE) and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Rensselaer, who heads the university’s Nuclear Engineering Program. “There is a high level of interest at the national level to quantify and reduce the amount of ionizing radiation involved in medical imaging. Our parallel computing method has the potential to be used in everyday clinical procedures, which would dramatically decrease the amount of radiation we receive from CT scans.”

Radiation exposure from x-rays and CT scans is a major concern for healthcare, and Wu is confident that this research will one day lead to an ability to perform “patient-specific” dose calculations using innovative image processing tools that do not currently exist. Read the Full Story.